Audio Attachment:Listen to some"Tsofi"sellers who sell along the Nsawam-Adoagyiri road voicing out their grievances and threatening that ruining their business will cause them to join the bandwagon of prostitutes in the country

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Traders of fried Turkey Tail (popularly known as “Tsofi”) in Nsawam Adoagyire and its environs in the Eastern Region have kicked against the new resolve of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) to enforce the ban on the fatty delicacy, saying any attempt to ruin their business will cause them to join the bandwagon of prostitutes in the country.

This is coming in the wake of government’s attempt to reinforce the ban on the sale and importation of Turkey tails into the country. The FDB says it will intensify surveillance activities to arrest people who import turkey tails illegally.

Nsawam is one of the notable places where sales of turkey tail are common. Almost all the young girls after completion of their primary school education join this trade as a means of livelihood. The traders’, whose major trade in the town is the sale of fried turkey tails, are therefore the least amused by this state of affairs.

Speaking in an interview with Peace News Reporter Richard Nii Adjei, some of traders said they will fiercely resist the planned attempt to reinforce the ban.

“We’ve been in this business for close to 35 years or more and this move by government will deprive us of the only means of livelihood, the only trading business we’ve known throughout our lives…if they close down our business, then we want to tell the gov’t that we’ll have no other option than to stand by the roadside and hawk (with our) bodies…we will become prostitutes…,” they said.

Only last week the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) announced in a press statement to the general public that the sale and importation of the turkey tail into the country has been banned.

In a statement, the FDB expressed concern about the illegal importation of turkey tail into the country, despite the existence of a law prohibiting it.

The statement also warned about the health implications of consuming ‘tsofi’.

It noted that “The Ministry of Trade and Industry in 1999...issued a communiqué to all importers to the effect that poultry and poultry products with a total fat content exceeding 15 percent was banned and not to be imported into the country.

“Consequently the Ministry of Food and Agriculture also stopped issuing permits for the importation of turkey tails into Ghana. However, turkey tails are still found on the Ghanaian market. It is therefore clear that these turkey tails are smuggled in either through unapproved routes or through misleading declaration of product content at the approved points of entry,” it said.

“It is worth noting that the fat from turkey tail, being of animal source is likely to have a good proportion of animal fats which are associated with high cholesterol level and as such are implicated in the occurrence many diseases including heart diseases.”

The statement said diets high in saturated fats can increase the risk of lungs, breast, colon and brain cancers.

Subsequently, the Custom Exercise Preventive and Service (CEPS) in collaboration with the FDB, impounded 3 containers loaded with Turkey tails (Tsofi) imported into the country by Venice Cold Store Limited at the Tema port, which has been labeled as chicken, but stuffed with the banned commodity. The seizure came as authorities claim the company had flouted the regulation.

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